Best Actor

Watch: Gretchen Mol on letting go of ‘Boardwalk Empire’

As “Boardwalk Empire” heads into its last season, Gretchen Mol admits she has mixed feelings. As she tells Gold Derby in a webcam chat (watch below), “It’s sad… It’s really been a dream… but I also think it’s good to let things go when they are still going strong… I’m amazed that I still alive to talk about it.”

Indeed, the show has seen its fair share of deaths over the years. And Mol’s character, Gillian Darmody, has far from clean hands; she even murdered a man in season three. As for her character’s toxicity, Mol explains, “She was essentially an orphan… all she knew from a very young age was being sexualized and having no real reference for what love is… in some ways’ she’s stunted.”

At the end of last season, her murderous ways finally caught up with her. She was arrested by her boyfriend, who was actually an undercover detective. However, even though her character has committed her fair share of sins, the actress thinks: “it was sad, it was so traumatic, I think that is a testament to the writing really, because they do play the audience in this way… you hopefully get the feeling a little bit almost sympathetic for her if that’s possible… The whole journey of last season was pretty incredible because she got cleaned up… for the first time in her life she’s opened her heart… and it just didn’t quite work out.”

Mol reveals she was told by the writers that the new boyfriend for her character was an undercover detective but “the question was ‘is he going to still continue through with his plan’ or would he fall for her and just ditch the whole thing. So to the end I thought it was possible that they might take the arc to that other place where Gillian gets a happy ever after, but nah.”

Will Mol make into the competitive Drama Supporting Actress race at this year’s Emmys? After watching our webcam chat, vote below using our easy drag-and-drop menu.